Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 12
60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025
Published 9 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
In our October 2025 oral evidence session, the Department highlighted that there was never an economic model that said the length of the first meeting should be 50 rather than 30 minutes. It also emphasised that there was flexibility in the system, for example to allow for initial meetings to be extended or for subsequent meetings to be arranged. The Accounting Officer recounted a recent visit to a jobcentre where he had seen a work coach extend an initial meeting to 40 minutes, knowing that their next customer had not arrived. Had the next customer been waiting, the work coach had said they would have decided whether the conversation needed to be continued there and then, and asked a colleague to take their next appointment if needed, or rebooked the first customer for another appointment if not. The Department also noted that the claimant commitment meeting was the start of a process–that meeting was followed by weekly meetings for claimants in the Intensive Work Search category for the first 13 weeks of their claim, so the conversations could continue.19 Transparency of local jobcentre performance
From: Public Accounts Committee, 60th Report - DWP follow-up: Autumn 2025 (HC 1447), 9 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 April 2026 (deadline 9 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with four of the Committee's five areas of recommendation and disagrees with the recommendation to publish regular jobcentre-level performance data.
- On integrating skills into the Jobs and Careers Service, the government agrees, naming "a key milestone" as bringing the National Careers Service together with Jobcentre Plus from 1 October 2026, with an update due in Spring 2026.
- On the shorter first work coach meeting, the government agrees and says it "will be undertaking a qualitative research project" to gather claimant insight, including feedback on the length and content of the meeting.
- The government disagrees with publishing jobcentre-level data, saying its view "remains that the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level", and points to its quarterly Labour Market Insights publication.
- On PIP claim times, the government agrees and says it "will however write to the Committee to provide the information available as requested, by the end of March 2026".